Carbon County voters are turning out in force during Election Day.

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich said this evening that “things are going seemingly well at the polls with anecdotal evidence showing strong in-person voter turnout.”

He noted that Lisa Dart, elections director, has been printing additional ballots and dispatching them to various precincts in preparation of the evening rush.

Franklin, Mahoning and East Penn ran out of ballots and people used provisional ballots until more ballots were brought to them.

Lukasevich said that the plan was to tabulate the voting machine votes and pass along those results to the Department of State, as well as continue pre-canvassing of mail-in and absentee ballots.

Once all votes from the precincts are tabulated, the department will then break for the night.

“(We) have absolutely no plan to work throughout the night and if those working the mail-ins seem fatigued earlier, they have been going since 7 a.m., we would consider an earlier stop of pre-canvassing of mail-ins and absentees,” he said.

Schuylkill County

At least one Schuylkill County municipality ran out of ballots Tuesday.

Clyde Champ Holman, Republican Committee man in Ryan Township, said they were at zero around 5 p.m.

“They ran out of total ballots,” Holman said.

Holman said a voter called him concerned he could not vote. He called his sister, Christine Wartman, judge of elections, who called the Schuylkill County Elections office two hours before they ran out. She was told they were printing the ballots.

“They were out for an hour,” he said.

Holman said there are 1,000 registered voters in Ryan Township. As of 1:30 p.m., he said about 70 percent had voted, in person or by mail-in or absentee ballot.

Hugh Reiley, Schuylkill County Democratic Committee Chairman, could not confirm if any precincts ran out of ballots, but said some ran low. Washington Township - North Precinct, Tower City Borough, and Walker Township among them.

Reiley said he spoke to Elections Director Al Gricoski about the situation.

“He assured me they are doing their utmost to get extra ballots to those locations,” Reiley said.

“They obviously did not plan for this heavy of a turnout. People are very motivated,” Reiley said.

Amy Marchiano contributed to this report.